1. Chris Ostrow
Nike Assignment
Nike
q) What kind of role NIKE’s external environment has played in the decision of contracting Michael
Jordan?
-Nike knew that Adidas was about to sign Michael Jordan so they threw more money at the Rookie than
any other company could match. Sunny Baccano convinced the company that if it took giving up the
company they needed to sign Michael. At the time they gave him ½ a million dollars.
q) List the main decisions related to athletic shoe development. Pay particular attention to technology
and environmental issues.
-Nike main objective being comfortable and the best shoe for an athlete. When Nikes creator was in
college he would cut out parts of shoes and reconstruct them to make the perfect shoe. No shoe was
ever light enough for the NCAA runner.
q) To what extent has the NIKE organizational culture and structure become significant in decision
making process?
-Nike is located in Beaverton, Oregon and has 16 buildings that give it a “campus feel”. They say it isn’t
your normal place to work. When other potential clients come to check out the facility it blows them
away.
q) Describe how did the structure developed to fulfill the organization’s mission statement?
-Phil Night and Bill Bomerman discussed how when the company first started they had 8 different jobs
each. Night went to business school at Stanford University and wrote a paper on his blueprint for Nike.
After graduation Night went to Japan to distribute Tigers in the United States and sold shoes out of the
backseat of his car. He went to different track and field events. Carolyn Davidson designed a logo for
them. They only gave her 35 dollars for this logo. Today they are ground breaking advertisers topped
with a roster full of superstars. They have more than 16 billion dollars in sales. Half of their sales come
internationally.
q) What kind of policy changes has occurred to fulfill the managerial tasks?
-Nike has moved from not just being a track and basketball shoe you can see it as formal wear such as
the Jordan 11’s or even in a local skate shop. Nike fans known as sneaker heads will camp outside for
days just to get the opportunity to purchase one of their sneakers.
q) Name the innovations in advertisement that led NIKE to controversy.
-Some of the controversies that lead to the NIKE controversy were using the Beatles song in one of their
advertisements. This gave NIKE more publicity. Some other examples were Spike Lee in Michael
Jordan’s commercial. This addition of Spike to the commercial gave Jordan more of a presence.

2. Another example was Charles Barkley’s commercial where he says I am not a role model. This set off a
national debate. Tiger Woods was also in a campaign where he did tricks that made the cut. In 2003
Nike signed Lebrun James and headed more towards marketing online. Nike hasn’t changed its message
and encouraged people to Just Do It. This slogan has since become a national phenomenon.
q) How should we distinguish between the effect of globalization ‘domestically’ and ‘outsourcing
abroad’?
-Globalization domestically is bringing brands of a certain product over seas such as McDonalds in
Russia, or India. In those countries the corporation makes changes due to the culture. In this cause
NIKE outsourced jobs from Americans for cheap labor and non workable conditions.
q) How should NIKE act with the ethical challenges it faced worldwide?
-NIKE should admit its mistakes and look to correct what it has done wrong. When the St. John’s coach
went undercover he reveled how the workers were treated unfairly. 10% of the shoe sales go to the
workers. 400 strikes have taken place in the Vietnam factory since 2007.
q) What can we learn from the policy change from ‘defensive’ being ‘proactive’?
- In life when you are caught the best thing to do is admit the truth. When you lie it leads to another lie
and it makes you look really bad. When you are proactive and look to correct the problem they can
present themselves in a more public light. People still go nuts for NIKE but they could have potentially
lost a lot of clients.
q) What should be done in the future? Do you believe more in a PR or Corporate responsibility approach
being more effective for NIKE?
-I think Corporate should show more responsibility because they are the ones who make the ultimate
decision. They can have a few little things that make it look like they care but they really don’t.
q) What types of challenges do NIKE face with changing face of sport shoe customers?
-Nike has to keep up with the times they realize every year is a different year and they need 2 adjust to a
new strategy. They have to remain hungry because when you are on top everyone is gunning for your
position.
q) How do you understand the expression: “Skateboarders do not be legitimized by a corporation!”
-Skateboarders are a different kind of breed I have a lot of friends who still dabble but were much more
serious when they were younger. Skateboarders don’t want to be associated with the commercial
atmosphere of the sport. It’s an underground rebellious lifestyle and sport and they don’t want NIKE
coming into their sport and taking their money.
q) Why did NIKE change its strategy related to extreme sports?

3. - Nike realized this and began selling their products in small skate shops to give the skateboarders a feel
of their product. Nike also signed a 19 year old unknown rookie similar to what they did with Michael
Jordan. They redesigned the sneaker to give it more of a skateboarder feel and have sold very well.